Alison steps out in search of England.

Coast to Coast Challenge

I'm looking forward to not having to check the toaster settings in the morning. I tend to go for gently warmed by the distant light of TRAPPIST-1, Alison usually whacks it up to global thermonuclear war.

What am I looking at?

The junk-punk DIY manifesto? Professor Gafferduck's latest invention? A masterpiece of outsider art? Whatever, I think it's fantastic. Chapeau!

It's as if Graeme Obree built a quantum leap accelerator.

Here's a closeup of the dashboard. Flux capacitor and chameleon circuit clearly visible.

The feeling that something in the dark is watching you.

The Palantír

I've been aware of a few Tolkien names and phrases popping up in the alt-right and manosphere over the last few years, which is... interesting.

Palantir and Trump's Deportation Machine – The Intercept

If you've actually read The Lord of the Rings, you might wonder why any company would choose to name itself after the palantír.

If I remember it correctly, the true king Aragorn masters the palantír and wrests it to his will, or something. So like, pervasive surveillance of all the thoughts and deeds of the citizenry is absolutely fine, because the true king will use this power to fight evil? Maybe that's what they're thinking of.

I wonder what the Prof would have made of it all. I mean, you can make many fair criticisms of the LOTR, but it's full of a horror of the industrialised surveillance state. That's how I read it anyway.

Colorado man claims to be King of England

All hail the king: Colorado man claims to be King of England

It's worth scrolling down to read the actual ad the guy placed in the paper. He claims that Wales is Gondor and he's king of it.

The Comes now... is reminiscent of the kind of wording the sovereign citizen movement use when they're trying to prove that they shouldn't pay any tax.